Month: April 2024

By RISDEL KASASIRA Associated Press KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan gay rights activists asked the international community to mount more pressure on the government of Uganda to repeal an anti-gay law which the country’s Constitutional Court refused to nullify on Wednesday. The court upheld a law that allows the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” and

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Najib Razak is seeking to serve the rest of his prison term under house arrest, two months after his graft sentence was halved. His application said he had information that the then-king had issued an order allowing his house arrest during the Jan. 29 pardon

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait is holding national elections for the fourth time in as many years as the oil-rich country seeks to break out of its longstanding political gridlock. The Persian Gulf country’s elected assembly has more power than most in the Arab world, but has long been at loggerheads with the

By KONSTANTIN TESTORIDES Associated Press SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — North Macedonia’s presidential race has kicked off, with seven candidates vying for the largely ceremonial post in a two-round vote that will conclude on May 8. The official start on Thursday to the campaign season means the candidates are allowed to make campaign speeches, hold

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press LONDON (AP) — More than 600 British jurists, including three retired judges from the U.K. Supreme Court, are calling on the government to suspend arms sales to Israel, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after the deaths of three U.K. aid workers in an Israeli strike. Britain is just

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s main pro-democracy resistance group says its armed wing launched drone attacks on the airport and a military headquarters in the capital, Naypyitaw. But the country’s ruling military said it destroyed or seized more than a dozen drones used in the attacks. The opposition National Unity Government’s “Defense Ministry” said Thursday that

By HYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s president has met the leader of thousands of striking junior doctors and promised to respect their position during future talks over the government’s contentious push to sharply increase medical school admissions. The meeting Thursday between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Park Dan, head

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton has a memoir coming out this fall about his years since leaving public office in 2001. “Citizen: My Life After the White House” will cover everything from the presidential campaigns of his wife, Hillary Clinton, to his views on events ranging

By CIARÁN GILES Associated Press MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities say a cruise ship stuck in the northeastern port of Barcelona will be able to resume its route after a group of Bolivian passengers with visa problems were taken off the vessel. The Spanish government said in a statement Thursday it had reached an agreement

PARIS (AP) — Lebanon’s billionaire caretaker prime minister has denied allegations of money laundering after a complaint was filed in France by two anti-corruption groups this week. The complaint against Najib Mikati was formally filed Tuesday with France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s office. Anti-corruption organization Sherpa said the aim is to “shed light on the conditions

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass vowed that cleanup would happen at a home where mounds of garbage and debris had piled up several feet high across the entire property’s fenced-in yard and driveway. The mayor said Wednesday that she only learned this week about the Spanish-style bungalow in the Fairfax district

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Kentucky Rep. James Comer is decrying a new rule making it harder to fire thousands of federal employees as an attempt to “insulate the federal workforce from accountability.” Advocates hope the rule will head off former President Donald Trump’s promises to radically remake the federal workforce along

By ALEXA ST. JOHN Associated Press DETROIT (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and other top officials traveled to North Carolina to announce $20 billion in grants for clean energy initiatives. The funding from the Environmental Protection Agency could be used to pay for projects like energy-efficient home improvements or electric vehicle charging stations. The

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Tonga’s prime minister says he is open to Beijing’s offer of security support for the South Pacific kingdom hosting a major regional leaders’ summit, raising concerns in the United States as it strives to counter China’s growing influence. Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni says there’s nothing to

ERIKA KINETZ and SOLOMIIA HERA The Associated Press DOVHENKE, Ukraine (AP) — Yukov says the same thing to all the mothers. He tells them to talk about their dead children, so they will be remembered. There is one person in particular whose story Yukov does not want forgotten: Oleksandr Romanovych Hrysiuk — Sasha, to his

By ERIKA KINETZ and SOLOMIIA HERA Associated Press DOVHENKE, Ukraine (AP) — The smell in the car is sick and sweet, the overpowering scent of corpses that have lain too long in muck and ruin, the ones the dogs didn’t devour. Oleksii Yukov, a 38-year-old martial arts instructor who leads a team of volunteer body

BERLIN (AP) — Austria’s justice minister says she plans to tighten the country’s rules on espionage, which currently is explicitly banned if directed against Austria itself but not if it targets other countries or international organizations. Her push to tighten Austria’s laws comes as the arrest of a former Austrian intelligence officer on allegations of